The disclosures herein relate generally to portable computer systems and more particularly to an adapter for mounting an LCD panel in a laptop computer.
Portable laptop or notebook computers include a base and a cover which is pivotally connected to the base at a hinged connection. When the cover is raised, a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel mounted therein is exposed. The LCD panels are costly components available from several manufacturing sources and are available in various sizes. In addition, the spacing and orientation of the mounting points for one manufacturer may vary from the spacing and orientation of the mounting points for another manufacturer. As a result, several different cover configurations are required for mounting the various size LCD panels and their multiple mounting points.
LCD panels are mounted between a cover base and a bezel. Various size LCD panels have different "active" areas, i.e. the area of the panel that becomes illuminated and is visible. As a result, the bezel used must cover the peripheral edges of the LCD panel in a manner which exposes only the active area for a particular panel. Because of the variation in panel sizes and active areas, it is difficult to provide a one size fits all bezel for all panels. Moreover, it is also difficult to provide apparatus and methods for securely mounting LCD panels in a cover base by accommodating the various sizes of panels and the various mounting point locations. As a result, costly additional parts are required to accommodate each different panel size and each different mounting point configuration to adapt the LCD panel to the cover and bezel with which a particular panel is being used.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and a method for mounting various size LCD panels having varying mounting point locations by using a single cover base configuration and a single bezel configuration.